unit 5 - social influence Flashcards

Question

give three brief evaluation points of Milgram's agency theory

Answer 1

STRENGTH - there is other research support WEAKNESS - the theory can't explain why there isn't 100% obedience WEAKNESS - the theory gives people an excuse for 'blind' obedience

Answer 2

there is other research support BLASS AND SCHMITT showed a film of Milgram's study to students who blamed the experimenter rather than the teacher for harm inflicted upon the learner therefore the students recognised the legitimate authority of the experimenter as the cause of obedience

Answer 3

the theory can't explain why there isn't 100% obedience in Milgram's study 35% of the participants didn't continue up to the maximum 450V this means that social factors don't fully explain obedience agency theory gives people an excuse for 'blind' obedience Nazis who were racists and prejudiced were doing more than just following orders - MANDEL 1998 claims that it is offensive to Holocaust survivors to suggests that the Nazis simply obeyed orders this means that agency theory is potentially dangerous as it allows people to not always think they are personally responsible

Answer 4

tried to explain the causes of obedience in people's personality

Answer 5

authoritarian personality - some people have an exaggerated respect for authority; they are more likely to obey orders and look down on those of an inferior social status cognitive style - people with an authoritarian personality have a rigid style of thinking, believe in stereotypes and don't like change childhood origins - authoritarian personality originated from having overly strict parenting and receiving conditional love the child identifies with parents moral values and feels hostility towards them which can't be expressed due to fear of reprisals scapegoating - Freud suggested that people who have this hostility displace this onto people who are social inferior and this is known as scapegoating the anger is offloaded to relive their anxiety and hostility

Answer 6

WEAKNESS - based on a flawed questionnaire WEAKNESS - evidence is based on correlational data WEAKNESS - the authoritarian personality cannot explain all cases of obedience

Answer 7

the theory was based on a flawed questionnaire Adorno's F-scale used a response bias such that anyone who answered yes received a higher authoritarian score this challenge the validity of the theory as it is based on poor evidence the data is correlational so we cannot claim that an authoritarian personality is the CAUSE of greater obedience levels, a third factor could be involved this suggests that other factors may explain the apparent link between obedience and the authoritarian personality the authoritarian personality cannot explain all cases of obedience millions of Germans displayed highly obedient and prejudiced behaviour but didn't have the same upbringing and same personality this means that there are probably social factors affecting obedience as well as dispositional ones (eg personality)

Answer 8

acting a way that promotes the welfare of others and may not benefit the helper

Answer 9

the presence of others reduces prosocial behaviour

Answer 10

to investigate if certain characteristics of a victim would affect whether people will help a bystander in a natural setting

Answer 11

a male confederate collapsed on a NYC subway train, appearing as either drunk or disabled, with a cane there were 103 trials and 2 observers one confederate acted as a model to help the collapsed confederate if no help was offered

Answer 12

the disabled victim was given help in 95% of trials the drunk victim was helped in 50% of trials help was as forthcoming in a crowded carriage as in a carriage with few people inside

Answer 13

characteristics of the victim affect whether they will receive help in a natural setting the number of people who witness an emergency doesn’t affect their willingness to help

Answer 14

STRENGTH - participants were not aware of their participation STRENGTH - qualitative data was collected WEAKNESS - most of the participants came from a city

Answer 15

participants were not aware of their participation this meant that the subway train passengers did not know they were in a city and so behaved naturally giving the results high validity this study collected qualitative data two observers on each trial noted down remarks they heard from passengers, offering a deeper insight into why people did or didn't offer help

Answer 16

the participants came mostly from a city so they may have been more used to these types of emergencies so their behaviour may not have been typical of all people (eg people from rural areas who don't usually see this sort of event)`

Answer 17

presence of others | cost of helping

Answer 18

bystander effect states that the more people are present the less likely that help is given DARLEY AND LATANE asked participants to have a discussion on an intercom with other (confederates). One had an epileptic seizure and asked for help if participants thought they were alone 85% reported the seizure compared to 32% if they thought that four others were present however this depends on the situation and the cost of not helping - in very serious emergencies when immediate actions are needed help is given (FAUL ET AL.)

Answer 19

decision of whether to help depends on costs cost of helping includes danger to self or embarrassment cost of not helping includes guilt, blame or leaving another in need they balance the costs and rewards of helping however, help depends o how the situation is interpreted such as SHOTLAND AND STRAW when a man and woman were arguing, people were more likely to intervene if the woman said that she didn't know him than if she said that she didn't know why she married him

Answer 20

similarity to victim | expertise

Answer 21

if you identify with a characteristic of the victim you are more likely to help them LEVINE ET AL found that ManU fans were more likely to help a runner who had fallen over if they were wearing a ManU shirt as opposed to a Liverpool FC shirt however, similarity may increase helping but if the costs are too high or the situation unclear this is not enough to guarantee helping

Answer 22

people with specialist skills are more likely to help in emergency situations that suit their expertise CRAMMER ET AL found that registered nurses were much more likely to help a workman who had fallen off a ladder however, expertise may not always matter SHOTLAND AND HEINOLD found that people who had received red cross training were no more likely to help a victim who was bleeding a lot than people who had received no training but still gave higher quality help

Answer 23

normally behaviour is ruled by social norms when we can't be identified we lose our normal restraints - we lose our normal sense of responsibility for our own actions we cease behaving rationally and instead behave impulsively and antisocially

Answer 24

to investigate deindividuation in a study similar to Milgram's

Answer 25

``` four female undergraduates had to deliver a fake electric shock to another student group 1 (individuated) - normal clothes, name tags and could see one another group 2 (deindividuated) - large coats with hoods, never referred to by name ```

Answer 26

the deindividuated group was more likely to press the button to shock the learner in the other room they held the shock button down twice as long as the individuated group

Answer 27

this supports the view that anonymity and deindividuation increases the likelihood of antisocial behaviour

Answer 28

WEAKNESS - deindividuation does not always result in antisocial behaviour STRENGTH - research on deindividuation can be used to help manage crowds WEAKNESS - antisocial behaviour may be due to crowding rather than collective behaviour

Answer 29

research on deindividuation can be used to help manage crowds at sporting fixtures there are often large crowds of people involved in these situations, crowd control may be best achieved by making people feel more self aware and less deindividuated such as by using video cameras at matches so people can watch themselves this shows that deindividuation can reduce antisocial behaviour in crowd situations

Answer 30

one weakness of Zimbardo's conclusion is that deindividuation doesn't always result in antisocial behaviour JOHNSON AND DOWNING (1979) conducted a similar study where female participants had to give shocks to a confederate - deindividuated participants either wore a KKK type gown or a nurse's outfit and individuated participants wore their own clothes - nurses gave fewer and milder shocks than those in KKK robes but more shocks than individuate participants antisocial behaviour mat be due to crowding rather than collective behaviour FREEDMAN found that when animals are packed together, they feel stressed and act aggressively so it may be due to overcrowding that creates antisocial behaviour as well as deindividuation

Answer 31

to investigate the behaviour of a crows to see if their behaviour was ruly or unruly

Answer 32

he analysed newspaper, TV, radio and police reports of the St Pauls riots in 1980 interviewed 20 people immediately after the riot to understand exactly what happened, 6 of these were in detail

Answer 33

riot was triggered by policemen raiding a cafe for drugs which was seen as an unjustified action a grow of 300 to 300 fathered and attacked the police and other properties, throwing stones and bricks and burning police cars, the attack intensified and spread when the police left, rioters calmed down and never moved beyond the St Pauls area

Answer 34

this shows that the crowd's behaviour was rule-driven and anger was only expressed towards predictable targets, based on the social attitudes of the area

Answer 35

STRENGTH - other research has come to similar conclusions about crowd behaviour STRENGTH - provides ideas about how best to police such riots WEAKNESS - case study is based on subjective data

Answer 36

other research has come to similar conclusions about crowd behaviour research on football hooligans by MARSH also found that violence didn't escalate beyond a certain point this supports the view that crowd behaviour is rule driven and not out of control this research provides ideas about how best to police riots like these Reicher's analyses suggest that increasing the police presence in riots does not always lead to a decrease in violence so it may be better to let local communities 'police' themselves this shows that this research can have a positive effect in the real world

Answer 37

the case study is based on subjective data Reicher based his account on eyewitness testimony of reporters and members of the crowd who may have had a biased perspective on the events that they had witnessed this means that the data may lack validityr

Answer 38

deindividuation social loafing culture

Answer 39

group norms (social factors) determine the behaviour of the crowd and whether it is prosocial or antisocial antisocial effects may be due to being packed together in a small space (crowding) instead of or in addition to deindividuation (Freedman) as found with rats

Answer 40

when working in a group, people individually put in less effort being in a group reduces personal identity (deindividuation) and individual contribution is unknown however, social loafing is not a problem for creative tasks in fact they mean that people put in greater individual output

Answer 41

individualist cultures focused on individual needs whereas collectivist cultures focused on the needs of the group social loafing is lower in collectivist cultures - EARLEY found that Chinese people put in the same amount of effort into a group task regardless of whether they could be identified or not ; this was not the same of US participants however, making generalisations about countries may be a simplification of the way people behave since they are influences by multiple cultures

Answer 42

people with an internal locus of control are less likely to be influence by others in a crows however not all research shows that personality matters BOCCHIARO ET AL fond that people who were willing to speak out had very similar scores on a personality test to those who were unwilling to speak out

Answer 43

morals are our sense of right and wrong those with greater moral strength are more likely to have their behaviour guided by these morals than be influenced by the opinions or behaviour of others this is supported by history the German Sophie Scholl was executed for distributing anti-Nazi literature she resisted the group norm and was willing to sacrifice her life for her moral values

unit 5 - social influence Flashcards

(72 cards)